For the second consecutive year, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has been designated as the best Spanish university -ahead of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Complutense of Madrid- by the prestigious QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) ranking, which gave to announce the classification for 2024 this Tuesday night. The Catalan university not only stands once again as the best institution, but also enters the top 150 of the best universities in the world, a fact that had only been achieved the UB (it was in 2010 and ranked 148) in the two decades of life of this ranking, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary.
The UAB is ranked 149th in the world, while the UB is at 164 and the Complutense de Madrid at 171. For the 12th consecutive year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is crowned the best university in the world. planet.
"We are very happy. It is a recognition of the work done over all these years", explains Javier Lafuente, rector of the UAB, to La Vanguardia, who stresses the importance of obtaining these records when "public university budgets increase very little and have even been decreasing in the last 15 years”. "In this context, we managed not only to stay in a good situation, but also to be above other universities that receive more funding," he asserts.
The UAB has improved 29 positions compared to last year's ranking, in which it was ranked 178. The UB and the Complutense have also progressed, with the first rising 20 positions (from 184 to 164) and the second 55 (from 226 to 171). There are other universities, such as the Polytechnic of Madrid, the University of Granada, Valencia or Seville, which have also stood out for the positions they have climbed in the classification.
Jordi Ardanuy, the UB rector's delegate for studies and analysis, also values "positively being well positioned in this ranking, especially taking into account the conditions in which Catalan universities work". “Occupying these places shows the great work we do,” he argues. Of course, he expresses his surprise for being the second at the national level "when all the other rankings" place them in first position.
The UB is, at the national level, the university that has occupied the place of honor in this classification on the most occasions in the last decade. It has done so up to seven times, twice by the UAB (this year and the previous one) and once by the Autonomous University of Madrid, which led it in 2019 (this year it ranks fourth just behind the Complutense).
In this twentieth edition of the ranking, QS has introduced three new metrics: sustainability, employment results and international research network. In addition, it has adjusted the weighting of some existing indicators, such as academic reputation (which has gone from having a weight in the ranking of 40% to 30%), employer reputation (which has risen from 10% to 15% ) and the student-faculty ratio (which has dropped from 20% to 10%).
Two Spanish institutions are among the 100 best in the world in terms of academic reputation, according to the opinion of 144,000 international academics: the UB (83) and the Complutense University of Madrid (96). The UAB is in 109th place. "Which are the two largest universities in the State?" asks its rector. “Reputation has to do with magnitude, also with doing it well. But having 26,000 students is not the same as having 50,000 or 70,000 ”, he adds.
La Complutense also leads, at the national level, the results in employability. It occupies, however, the 106th position, so QS analysts suggest that it has "room for improvement".
Spanish universities fare more poorly in the scale that measures reputation among employers, with none of them among the top 100 (98,000 global employers have been surveyed for this metric). The results improve slightly in terms of impact on research, with the UAB being among the 200 best in the world (145th place) according to citations by faculty.
“We are a university focused on research, and not just us, the Catalan university system”, says Lafuente. “We start from research to be able to offer quality teaching and thus be able to make a good transfer. It also affects your reputation and positioning. They get to know us more and more."
QS analysts highlight "Spain's notable achievements in international collaboration and sustainability efforts": "Its institutions adopt a global mindset, foster partnerships and prioritize sustainable development to shape a brighter future," says Ben Sowter, Vice President of QS.
In this sense, the ranking places four Spanish universities –the UB (23); the Complutense (41); the UAB (60) and the Autónoma de Madrid (97) - among the 100 best in the world in sustainability. “We are number 23 worldwide. This data is simply incredible”, says Ardanuy. “Sometimes you are surprised and wonder how you can reach this position with the means we have. It is true that the ranking gives a weight of 5% to this indicator, but we attach great importance to it”, he adds.
Globally, for yet another year (and there are already 12 consecutive years, which is a record), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) occupies the first position. The University of Cambridge repeats in second place while the University of Oxford rises to third position, just ahead of Harvard (4th) and Stanford (5th). The United States and the United Kingdom are the countries with the most representation in the top 10, with four universities each.
Breaking into the world top 10, compared to last year, the University of California (Berkeley), which has gained 17 positions (from 27th to 10th place) and the National University of Singapore (from 11th to 8th). Cornell University (USA) also stands out, which has gained 8 positions (from 20 to 12) and two Australian institutions, the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney, which have climbed 26 and 22 positions. respectively.
